With the explosion of the Internet has come a corresponding explosion of user applications. Formerly, web pages were used primarily for display of information, and user interaction was nearly limited to simple operations such as clicking a link. As the Internet has matured, so have the capabilities of web pages, and so have the techniques used by web page designers to support interaction of users with web pages. Today many web pages rely on user navigation and controls far more sophisticated than merely clicking links. In fact some web pages serve as sophisticated web applications, and in some cases, web page designers use embedded applets or other user interface techniques to support interaction of users with web pages of a web application. As the level of sophistication of web applications increases, so also do the demands on users to learn how to effectively operate new applications. Further, as the degree of mobile computing increases, legacy techniques for providing application help (e.g. a printed manual, a help manual stored in an online repository, etc) become deficient in providing the user with meaningful assistance, guidance, and knowledge as to how to operate the application.
Some deficiencies in legacy techniques are manifested when a user engages in a task using inefficient methods. This situation motivates the present disclosures, and is especially motivating when better alternatives are available, but are new, and/or unknown to the user. In some motivational cases, a user engages in a task within a digital application (e.g. an online application) without having foundational knowledge of how to achieve the best results when using the application. Further, and especially as relates to on-the-go mobile computing, legacy techniques fail when a user encounters a problem or has a question, but is unwilling to interrupt their activity long enough to go to an external help system and search for an answer. As a result, using legacy techniques, users may exert energy in a trial-and-error approach, and may lose momentum for completing the tasks at hand, and may build up frustration. Especially in the context of mobile computing, unsolicited guidance (e.g. unsolicited pop-ups) often substantially occludes the work area of the online application, and often leaves a user feeling irritated. Further, legacy techniques often interrupt the natural flow of completing a task, and in some cases actually block a user from proceeding with completion of their tasks.
Even the so-called context sensitive help components are deficient since these legacy techniques block progress or otherwise impede the flow of user's progression to complete the tasks pertinent to the application. And, legacy techniques do not account for the user's selection of a particular task completion approach, or account for the user's use (or lack of use) of particular features of the application. Thus, for these and other reasons, there exists a need for embedding non-blocking help components in a displayed page of an application.